AEST Time Now

AEST right now

AEST is Australian Eastern Standard Time, ten hours ahead of UTC. It is the clock of Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra and Hobart in winter, and of Brisbane all year, because Queensland does not observe daylight saving.

In the Australian summer, from the first Sunday of October to the first Sunday of April, the south-eastern states move to Australian Eastern Daylight Time (AEDT, UTC+11). That is why the abbreviation AEST is only in effect for roughly half the year in Sydney.

When this page was last built (Friday, November 6, 2026, 12:00 UTC) it was 10:00 PM on Friday in Australian Eastern Standard Time. The offset for AEST is UTC+10. The live clock above takes over as soon as the page loads and shows the exact current time.

Where AEST is used

AEST covers the eastern states of Australia and Papua New Guinea’s nearest neighbours.

• Sydney
• Melbourne
• Brisbane
• Canberra
• Hobart
• Gold Coast
• Newcastle
• Wollongong
• Geelong
• Cairns
• Port Moresby

Queensland stays on AEST all year, while New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania and the ACT use AEDT in summer. Papua New Guinea shares UTC+10, so Port Moresby matches AEST all year.

Working with Australia

Australia is the first big market to open in the Western world’s working day. The ASX trades from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM in Sydney, which is midnight to 6 AM UTC in winter, or 11:00 PM to 5 AM UTC in summer. London and New York desks see the Sydney close in their evening or night.

For India, Sydney is 4 hours 30 minutes ahead when Australia is on AEST and 5 hours 30 minutes ahead on AEDT. A 9 AM Sydney meeting is 4:30 or 3:30 AM in Delhi, so the usable overlap is Indian morning and Australian lunchtime. With the US, Sydney is 14 hours ahead of New York in northern summer and 16 hours ahead in northern winter.

The southern-hemisphere seasons reverse the usual pattern, so Sydney’s summer is New York’s winter. Because the two hemispheres change clocks on different dates, there are weeks in March and April, and again in October and November, when the New York gap is 15 hours instead of 14 or 16. That brief gap is a common trap in recurring meetings.

AEST, AEDT and the American EST

AEST is the winter form and AEDT the summer form, but Australians often just say “Eastern time” or “Sydney time”. If you see AEST on a summer date for Sydney or Melbourne, the sender probably means local time.

Americans use EST for Eastern Standard Time, UTC−5. An invite for “10 AM EST” from Sydney may mean Australia’s Eastern Standard Time instead. The gap between the two is 15 hours, so the confusion is serious.

Safe practice for Australia: write the city, such as Sydney or Brisbane, because Queensland and New South Wales have the same AEST name but differ by an hour in summer.